Second season possible

By Staff and Wire Reports

Published: Wednesday, July 17, 2013 at 09:48 PM.

Local reaction

The vote was watched closely by those in the Bay County fishing industry.

With seasons for grouper and amberjack opening August 1 and continuing through the end of October, Panama City charter Capt. Billy Archer said the additional snapper season will add another option for anglers on the water this fall.

“It’s a nice little economic boost for the guys who like to fish for snapper, grouper and amberjack at the same time,” said Archer, captain of the boat “Seminole Wind.”

Archer said while the fall season is welcomed, anglers must continue to be good stewards of the resource.

”We just want to make sure we don’t overfish in the fall because it could shorten our season next June,” Archer said. “We want to have those days when the people are here, and the people aren’t here in October.”

NEW ORLEANS — Fishing regulators have voted to increase this year’s red snapper quota by 2.5 million pounds and to start a recreational season Oct. 1 if the anglers’ share of the catch so far allows it.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council increased this year’s quota on Wednesday from 8.46 million to 11 million pounds for one of the Gulf’s most popular eating and sports fish. A recreational season would get up to 21 consecutive days.

The length is uncertain because recreational anglers have regularly exceeded their 49 percent share of the total annual quota. Their catch through June will be subtracted from the increased recreational quota of 5.9 million pounds when figures become available in mid-August. If some of their quota remains, there would be a second season.

Commercial boats are assigned 51 percent of the annual total.

Decades of overfishing had depleted the species when the first recovery plan for red snapper went into effect in 1990. The total quota had been about 9.1 million pounds for years when regulators cut it to 5 million pounds. It has risen steadily since.

Council member Kay Williams, of Vancleave, Miss., wanted this year’s total set to 12.1 million pounds — the highest choice on the agenda. She said the lower quota penalizes commercial boats and people who buy red snapper for failure to control the recreational sector.

“We just took a million pounds away from the commercial industry,” said Williams, who cast the only “nay” in a 15-1 roll-call vote.

Local reaction

The vote was watched closely by those in the Bay County fishing industry.

With seasons for grouper and amberjack opening August 1 and continuing through the end of October, Panama City charter Capt. Billy Archer said the additional snapper season will add another option for anglers on the water this fall.

“It’s a nice little economic boost for the guys who like to fish for snapper, grouper and amberjack at the same time,” said Archer, captain of the boat “Seminole Wind.”

Archer said while the fall season is welcomed, anglers must continue to be good stewards of the resource.

”We just want to make sure we don’t overfish in the fall because it could shorten our season next June,” Archer said. “We want to have those days when the people are here, and the people aren’t here in October.”

Pam Anderson, operations manager at Capt. Anderson’s Marina in Panama City Beach, attended Wednesday’s meeting and urged the council to opt for a “weekend only” fall season.

She said a weekend only season would have benefitted Bay County by supplementing festivals in the area. Although the council decided for a continuous season, Anderson is now hoping the season will last through the weekend of Oct. 20 for the Panama City Beach Seafood and Music Festival.

Anderson said Capt. Anderson’s Marina alone is home to roughly 40 businesses that will benefit from additional snapper fishing time this year.

“When we have red snapper, all the boats get out fishing,” Anderson said. “In the fall, we may not be totally full, but they’ll all be out.”

Last year, recreational anglers were assigned just under 4 million pounds and caught 5.8 million pounds. In 2011, the recreational quota was 3.9 million pounds; the catch 4.6 million, according to the website for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division.

“I think we came a lot closer in the last couple of years than before,” Roy E. Crabtree, regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries, said during the meeting.

He said part of the reason for the underestimates is that the average fish size increased faster than expected. That’s beginning to stabilize, he said.

Each commercial fishing boat is assigned an individual weight quota. Those for 2013 will be increased when the final rule is published, “hopefully sometime in September,” NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman Kim Amendola.

Recreational anglers and “head boats” that take groups of anglers into the Gulf don’t have weight quotas. Rather, they have daily per-person bag limits and specific dates when they can take red snapper.

Each state sets its own season and daily bag limit for state waters; only Mississippi’s and Alabama’s seasons and bag limits match those in federal waters. Taking those into account, NOAA Fisheries sets the season for federal waters based on estimates of when the recreational quota will be met.

This year, it originally set four seasons — one each for Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, and one for Mississippi and Alabama. Texas and Louisiana challenged that plan, and a federal judge threw it out. The federal season wound up running June 1-28 in federal waters off all five states.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has had agents at marinas check the catch this season. The total through June has been well under NOAA Fisheries’ preseason estimates, Assistant Secretary Randy Pausina, the state’s top fisheries official, said Tuesday.

“If you’re looking at pounds, we are at 65 percent of what they said we would harvest in this state,” he said.

News Herald writer Valerie Garman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

An earlier version of this story is posted below:

NEW ORLEANS — The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has voted to increase this year's red snapper quota by 2.5 million pounds and to start a recreational season Oct. 1 if the catch so far allows it.

The council increased this year's quota on Wednesday from 8.46 million to 11 million pounds. A recreational season would get up to 21 consecutive days.

A supplemental recreational season isn't certain because anglers have regularly exceeded their 49 percent share of the total, though commercial boats meet their quotas. The recreational excess is usually subtracted from the following year's recreational quota. With the split season, any excess would be subtracted from added recreational quota.

The earlier federal season was June 1-28. Three of the five Gulf Coast states have different seasons in state waters.

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